Nagpur: Twelve days after a tiger was found dead under mysterious circumstances, Gondia forest officials have arrested three persons for electrocuting the big cat.
The accused have been identified as Roshanlal Baghele, his son Mukesh, both residents of Lodhitola village, and Balchand Rane from Chutia. All three have confessed to committing the crime, said officials. They have been remanded to forest custody remand (FCR) till November 30.
The highly decomposed carcass was found on November 15 at Lodhitola, 140km from Nagpur. Many body parts were strewn in the vicinity of agricultural lands in Gondia range.
While post mortem could not be conducted due to the putrefied state of the carcass, forest officials retained some body parts to probe the cause of death.
The tiger was killed on the intervening night of November 6-7 in the farm of Nirmala Dhekwar. The foresters learnt about the incident after 12 days.
“We summoned all those on whose farms the body parts of the tigers were strewn. During interrogation, all confessed to the crime. One of the accused, Mukesh, on November 25 showed the spot and agriculture fields of other farmers where the body parts were dumped. He also handed over the axe used in the crime,” said Gondia deputy conservator (DyCF) Kulraj Singh.
On November 26, the accused disclosed some more spots from where tiger hair and material like barbed wires and sticks were seized.
Investigating officials including ACF RR Sadgir and RFO SK Akre said the involvement of more accused cannot be ruled out as tiger nails, whiskers and skull were missing.
Lodhitola police patil Indubai Rahangdale, Gajanan Kawle, and Satpuda Foundation’s Mukund Dhurve helped forest officials in the probe.